Pilot is best car for teens

[rocky]

According to the WSJ, the 2006-08 is the best car for teens.

The Best Cars for Teen Drivers - WSJ.com

For parents and teens, choosing a car for a first-time driver can be an anxiety-filled process. Teens want a sporty car they won't be embarrassed to drive to school. Parents want safety, safety, safety.

Cross a new car off the list because the chances of a new driver putting a dent in it, or worse, are roughly 1 in 4.

Late-model used cars offer a just-right combination of modest power and performance, top-notch crash scores, advanced safety features and decent reliability scores that safety experts say parents should seek in any car intended for a new driver.

To come up with the best rides for a teen driver, I crunched the numbers from several key sources of data and safety rankings: safety and crash-test information from the websites of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and quality and reliability scores from Consumer Reports, the nonprofit product-analysis publisher. Among the vehicles best suited for teen drivers: the Honda Accord (24 points,) the Ford Fusion (22 points) and the Toyota Camry (22 points).


You won't see pickups, sports cars, or tiny subcompacts on the list. Pickups are too easy to roll. Sports cars tempt young drivers to drive too fast. Subcompacts don't put enough metal between your kid and obstacles they may hit, even though today's small cars are dramatically better engineered than the tiny hatchbacks baby boomers drove in the '70s and '80s.

For the first time, this year, the Insurance Institute says it can recommend certain sport utility vehicles as safe choices for young drivers. In the past, the institute's experts said the SUVs' propensity to roll over made them a risky option.

Newer SUVs and crossovers—wagons that ride on the chassis of cars—that are equipped with electronic stability control now have fatality rates as low or lower than most classes of cars, according to a new IIHS analysis of federal crash data.

"In the past, because [SUVs] are a bit top heavy, they could be twitchy in handling and it was easy to get out of control and roll them over," says the institute's president, Adrian Lund. The IIHS data now shows SUVs with stability control have 70% fewer single-vehicle rollover crashes than those without the technology, Mr. Lund says. SUVs also stand higher off the ground, he says, so more of the force hits the frame below the driver's seat in a side-on crash.

American Honda Motor Co.

The 2008 Honda Pilot came in first in a Journal ranking.


The Insurance Institute's website has vehicle ratings based on its crash tests. You can search by vehicle class. I looked for models that have "good" ratings for front and side impact tests. Then I turned to Consumer Reports and looked up reliability ratings for those cars. If one of my first picks had a below average reliability rating from Consumer Reports, it was out.

Finally, I threw in points for stars earned on the federal government's crash tests. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hands out up to 20 stars for a car's ability to protect the driver and front passenger in front and side-impact collisions.

Among the midsize cars that scored well are the Accord, the Fusion and the Camry. Your kid may grouse that these are three of the blandest cars on the road, but they are reliable, four-cylinder cars that aren't too big or too small, and are easily serviced. All these cars, at three or four years old, will cost between $15,000 and $19,000, depending on mileage, condition and model year. With Toyotas, be sure to take the Vehicle Identification Number to a dealer to check that all the recalls Toyota ordered were performed.

An older, second-hand luxury car is a good way to give a teen a vehicle with a full complement of safety technology. The trick is finding one that isn't too powerful. Among those that got through the filter: the sedate Lexus ES, an Audi A4 and a 2004-2008 Acura TL.

The Acura TL gets 24 points in my scoring system mainly because it has a top rating for reliability from Consumer Reports. A caveat with this car: The six-cylinder engine is rated at 258 horsepower—too much for a new driver. That's why four-cylinder versions of the Camry, Accord, Fusion and the Chevy Malibu are so appealing. Among those, the Accord scores highest because of superior reliability ratings and strong NHTSA crash-test scores.

Some of the crossover sport utilities that did well are the Acura MDX, Honda Pilot, Subaru Forester, and newer Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV 4 models with stability control.

Some vehicles didn't make my list because they aren't rated in one or more of the three rankings I used. The 2008-2010 BMW X3 crossover, for example, has good scores from the Insurance Institute, and a better than average reliability rating from Consumer Reports. But the NHTSA hasn't posted crash-test results. Odds are it would do well: Most BMW models get 19 out of 20 stars on the NHTSA front and side-impact crash-test ratings.

It's tempting to buy a teen a very cheap, older car or a small pickup. But old cars often don't have safety technology such as side air bags, or anti-lock brakes, that can greatly improve the odds of avoiding or surviving a crash. Pickups have rollover death rates that are more than twice as high as those for cars, according to federal data.

Teens may wind up driving family haulers like SUVs because it's the vehicle their parents have handy to lend. Keep in mind you don't want teens hauling lots of friends around or they'll be distracted and get in trouble. Some states now restrict how many passengers a teen driver may carry in the first year or two on the road.

David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports' auto-testing division, says he would still steer young drivers away from large SUVs. "I'm not sure all-wheel drive necessarily is a good thing," he says.

In slick conditions, all-wheel drive can get a vehicle going faster than an inexperienced driver can handle, and when the kid hits the brakes, the vehicle will skid.

Write to Joseph B. White at joseph.white@wsj.com

[fishingdan]

I am the original owner of a 2004 EX that now has about 150k miles on it. This is the very reason we are holding on to it. We have always loved the Pilot and I still drive it daily. Knock on wood, we haven't had any issues with the vehicle and, hopefully, we'll seem many more miles on it before we do. That said, it is now lined up to be the vehicle for my teens. It is safe, reliable and has a decent size for safety.

[michaelp95]

Load up 6 of your friends and your girl, dump the 6 friends at the party, take your girl back to your Pilot, fold down the back seats.....yeah sounds like perfect for teens.

[whizmo]

One criteria I'd have for teen car is that it gets good-enough gas mileage that a teenager can afford to put gas in it. An SUV doesn't qualify for that reason alone.

I'm all for active safety systems like ABS, stability control, etc. but the idea that we should put kids in tanks because tanks are safer rankles me. It may provide some extra crash protection for the kid driving the car, but it puts everyone else around them at greater risk, especially considering their level of experience. If everyone ups the ante and puts their kids in bigger cars, then as a whole, we're back where we started. And I'm a firm believer that big cars make poorer drivers - you just don't develop a feel for car control when the car is bigger and heavier.

Unless there is a good reason why a kid needs a big car, they should be driving safe, but fuel-efficient cars, not tanks. And cars they actually want to drive so they take some pride and ownership in the car. My 17-yo daughter drives a 2006 Jetta 2.5L with ABS, traction control, ESP, excellent tires, and lots of airbags. And she does a lot of babysitting to afford to buy her own gas. I also paid extra for expanded levels of driver training and plan on taking her to a track day this fall.

- Mark

[roarkrd]

I guess the majority of what car you allow your teen to drive depends on the money at hand, and how confident you are in your teen's driving ability. I don't see a problem with giving them a larger vehicle if you can fully trust them. Nowadays, there are plenty of systems available to limit what your teen can do while driving, that will also report back to parents, thus hopefully stopping mischief (speeding, etc.). Also, while you may not want to give a young person a larger car that can protect them, because you are scared as to what it could do to someone else, to me that seems a little off. I would care more about my own child's safety before the safety of others, now that doesn't mean I wouldn't care if my child injured someone else, but personally my family comes first, then yours. If I feared my child was going to threaten someone else's safety, I would not put them behind the wheel in the first place. Just my two cents.

[hondacuraplanet]

I agree with many of the points that all of you have made. I used to be a believer in the "big tank lotsa metal" paradigm until I saw a crash of a new Impala versus a '59 Impala on Youtube. I was amazed at the way the '59 was just obliterated while the cabin of the new model was intact.

My son's going to be driving in a few years, and I told him that I would match however much he saves up to buy a car. My choice, I'd put him into a 98-00 Integra LS 3 door. It's got everything he needs rolled up in one package, plus he can still "customize" it if he so desires

[whizmo]

With continuing advances safety systems (both to prevent crashes and protect occupants), today's small cars are safer than yesterday's large cars. And larger cars are more likely to be involved in accidents simply by their being less nimble and being a larger target.

Everything else being equal, a teen driving a 2011 Civic is LESS likely to be injured in an automobile accident then if they were driving a 2000-era SUV. So if you've got the money, it is better spent on a later-model small car than an earlier-model large car.

Another thing to keep in mind is that auto safety has improved to such a degree that it is nothing like the risk it represented a couple decades ago (see graph below from the latest issue of Car and Driver magazine). My teen driving scares the crap out of me, but any modern car is probably going to do a pretty good job of protecting her unless she is exceedingly unlucky or does something very stupid.



I think we've got to arrest this pre-disposition we have towards all of us buying into a "bigger is better" mentality. It only works when, as someone just said, you put your safety above others. If everyone takes that attitude, then nobody is any safer and we're all clogging our roads driving 10 mpg tanks. Instead, how about all of us doing our part to make the roads safer for everyone? And drive cars that efficiently meet our transportation needs. And teens generally don't need the utility of a big SUV.

- Mark

[hondacuraplanet]

A little off the topic, but.....

The only detriment to the entire equation about cars becoming so much better is that drivers have gotten so much worse. We see it here in the snowbelt all the time. Almost every vehicle you'll see spun out in snow, for example, is an SUV. People think that 4WD or AWD is an excuse for them to not pay attention, or not cautiously observe the road and driving conditions.

My old van was down for the count over the winter, so I drove my 04 Mustang through the winter, on standard all-season tires. People would ask me how I could possibly maneuver a rear wheel drive car with no ABS on icy roads in the winter. It's called being a skilled driver.

[rocky]

Originally Posted by michaelp95

Load up 6 of your friends and your girl, dump the 6 friends at the party, take your girl back to your Pilot, fold down the back seats.....yeah sounds like perfect for teens.

No wonder my near driving teen wants to take the Pilot.....

[hondacuraplanet]

Mine keeps telling me that he wants my conversion van when he gets his license. Nope, I'm too young to be a grandparent

[whizmo]

Originally Posted by hondacuraplanet

The only detriment to the entire equation about cars becoming so much better is that drivers have gotten so much worse. We see it here in the snowbelt all the time. Almost every vehicle you'll see spun out in snow, for example, is an SUV. People think that 4WD or AWD is an excuse for them to not pay attention, or not cautiously observe the road and driving conditions.

I agree, but this sort of thing seldom causes fatalities or even serious injuries. I doubt the rate of minor fender benders has dropped much at all.

- Mark

[samc]

Originally Posted by michaelp95

Load up 6 of your friends and your girl, dump the 6 friends at the party, take your girl back to your Pilot, fold down the back seats.....yeah sounds like perfect for teens.

I agree while our pilot is a very safe vehicle and VERY reliable infact this is the exact reason why it's not good for a teen. 5 teen passangers all talking loud is what causes crashes.

I agree with Tim, my brother in law used to have an integra and while he burned it to the ground (ricey mods), the car itself was very reliable. That and you can only fit about 3 full size adults in that car.

[mikemcm]

my kids will be getting a small econ car. A 1979 civic hondamatic was good enough for me so it will do for them. most people drive compacts in canada anyways, lucky I still have 5 years left before they get behind the wheel